FRIDAY, SEPT. 29, 2017

Idaho GOP gubernatorial hopeful Tommy Ahlquist has unveiled a new TV ad touting his support for term limits, while also criticizing both federal and state government spending . Here’s a look at what it says and the claims. WHAT IT SAYS “I’m Dr. Tommy Ahlquist....

Melinda Smyser, current regional director for U.S. Sen. Jim Risch and a former state senator from Parma, was named director of the Idaho Department of Labor today by Gov. Butch Otter. Smyser, whose appointment is subject to confirmation by the state Senate, will start in...

Labrador isn’t commenting on it, but the Idaho Statesman reports today that 1st District Rep. Raul Labrador sent a letter earlier this month to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions saying “there is a strong possibility that a miscarriage of justice is being committed” in the...

A southwestern Idaho sheriff says he's looking into the expensive option of housing inmates out of state because inmates keep escaping from a tent facility. Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue also says that about 250 people who should be considered violent are being released ahead of their trial because there's no room in the jail...

State invoice records show it cost Idaho taxpayers roughly $14,000 for the state Controller's Office to hire a private law firm to investigate sexual and racial harassment claims against a top employee. State officials said Thursday the office hired outside attorneys to prevent any conflicts of interest...

A federal court has ruled that an agribusiness company that mined phosphate for fertilizer must pay $1.5 million in permit fees annually to eastern Idaho tribes to store millions of tons of toxic waste on tribal lands. Chief U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill in a 33-page order on Thursday granted a request by the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes...

THURSDAY, SEPT. 28, 2017

Here’s what Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, asked today about the prospect of chairing Foreign Relations, had to say: “I have 15 months left as the chair of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, and I intend to be as robust and focused on that as...

According to Mercer — the state's newest actuarial consultant — Idaho taxpayers could save roughly $13 million during the first year of implementing a self-insurance model. Under a such a plan, the state would pay for health insurance for about 45,600 state workers and family members directly rather than purchasing insurance through...

As Idaho’s teacher shortage continues, school districts and charter schools are being forced to improvise, Idaho EdNews reports. They are hiring more and more professionals with no teaching experience or college graduates who didn’t major in education. They are moving some veteran teachers into new...

resident Donald Trump’s announcement of planned tax reforms Wednesday drew praise from Republicans in the Washington and Idaho delegations, who said it would provide financial relief to working Americans and boost economic growth. Washington’s senior Democrat, meanwhile, criticized the plan as a way to help the rich at the expense of the middle...

The number of imperiled Snake River sockeye salmon that made it back to central Idaho this year is the second worst in the last decade, officials said, but enough hatchery-raised fish exist to keep a state and federal recovery program going. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game said 159 of the federally protected fish arrived at the Sawtooth...

When U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions called out Boise State University by name in a Tuesday speech as one of many American universities he contended was wrongly restricting free speech in an attempt to accommodate “political correctness” and be a “shelter for fragile egos,” BSU...

A man who spent 20 years in an Idaho prison, including 14 years on death row, for murder before being exonerated is facing new charges. KTVB-TV reports Donald Manuel Paradis was arrested Tuesday for aggravated assault. The victim told police he was in an argument...

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 27, 2017

Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador is praising an announcement from the Trump Administration that it will drop the cap on refugees admitted to the United States next year to 45,000, even lower than the 50,000 that Labrador and House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte proposed in legislation...

Idaho Sen. Jim Risch’s name is being bandied about in Washington, D.C. today as the possible next chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with current Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., announcing yesterday that he won’t seek re-election, and the other leading candidate for the post...

An Idaho state prison inmate with a long record of attacking prison guards has been convicted of mailing death threats to a Washington state judge, and sentenced to a federal prison term after he leaves state custody. Brian Ray McClure, 55, pleaded guilty to mailing letters to King County Superior Court Judge Jim Rogers, threatening the judge...

A military judge ruled Wednesday that prosecutors trying Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl don't have to turn over more information about conversations one of them had with the Trump administration about the case. Prosecutors have acknowledged that one of them spoke to a lawyer for the National Security Council earlier this year about defense efforts...

TUESDAY, SEPT. 26, 2017

Western senators, led by Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo and Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, are launching a full-court press to get a fix for the nation’s wildfire funding system through Congress now, while the nation is still gasping from a record fire season and coping with...

White Bird Rep. Priscilla Giddings isn't the only state official facing questions over a property tax homeowner exemption, the Lewiston Tribune reports: Secretary of State Lawerence Denney, who lives in Nampa much of the year, is in a dispute with the Washington County assessor over...

The Idaho Interfaith Roundtable Against Hunger is hosting an event tonight at the Cole and Ustick branch library, 7557 W. Ustick Road in Boise, on impacts of climate change on Idaho’s food system, featuring two Boise State professors, a farmer from Middleton and a rancher...

MONDAY, SEPT. 25, 2017

Researchers at Boise State University and the College of Idaho have found a previously unidentified species of plant – hiding in plain sight in the Boise foothills. Boise State Public Radio reports today that the plant was often identified as biscuit-root, but when professors tested...

Tissue in hand, the young crime victim recounted her experience with Idaho’s criminal justice system after being raped by an 18-year-old at the age of 14. “I was often overlooked in the court proceedings,” she said, “at times not even made aware of certain hearings. … I was often forced to find different accommodations, such as traveling over...

Politico is featuring Idaho Rep. Christy Perry, R-Nampa, today in an extensive article on how conservative state lawmakers across the nation are becoming advocates for public defense reform. In Idaho, Perry co-chaired the legislative interim committee to improve Idaho’s constitutionally troubled public defense system, and...

More than 20,000 Idaho high school seniors have been pre-admitted to the state’s public colleges and universities and will be receiving acceptance letters this week, the state Board of Education reports. Under the board’s “Direct Admissions” initiative, now entering its third year, students whose grades...